Is Your Business AI-Ready?
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7 min read
If your company still runs SAP BW on its own servers, you've probably heard this line in a meeting or two lately: "We need to decide something before 2027."
That date isn't random. SAP's mainstream maintenance for BW 7.5 ends in 2027, with extended maintenance available until 2030 for an added fee. SAP's Dominik Kurz told SAPinsider in 2025 that somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 customers are still running BW 7.5. So a lot of teams are staring at the same calendar.
At Dotsquares, we spend a lot of time on cloud migration, and SAP BW migration to cloud brings its own set of questions. Where do we move it? How? And what will it cost? Let's go through them in plain words.
SAP BW, short for SAP Business Warehouse, is SAP's data warehouse. It pulls data from SAP and non-SAP systems into one place, cleans and organises it, and feeds the reports and dashboards that finance, sales and operations teams rely on every day. If your monthly numbers come from a standard SAP report, there's a good chance BW is working in the background.
It comes in a few versions. BW 7.5 is the older one many companies still run, and BW/4HANA is the newer version built for SAP's HANA database. Which one you're on decides how much you need to change when you move to the cloud.
The deadline is the loudest reason, but it isn't the only one.
SAP Learning explains the difference clearly. When BW is deployed on your own premises, everything from deployment to maintenance and scaling is manual work for your company. In a private cloud setup, the responsibility of hosting the software is with SAP or hyperscalers and the workload is significantly reduced. Scaling becomes simpler too.
There's a support angle too. BW 7.5 running in a private cloud edition inside SAP Business Data Cloud stays supported until 2030, and BW/4HANA is supported until 2040. SAP's own recommended path leads to that platform, where BW data can sit alongside SAP Datasphere and be shared with SAP Databricks for AI work.
Cloud offers scalable solutions that can be adapted according to your needs, which leads to savings in case of reduced requirements.
Here's a mistake that's easy to make: moving everything because it's all there.
Before you move anything, get answers to a few questions:
Cleaning up data before it moves is also one of theenterprise data migration best practices worth following here. It saves effort and money later.
Now, let's talk about the question we get a lot. Can SAP BW run on AWS? Yes. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP mentions that BW/4HANA can be installed through it on systems with SAP HANA, ranging from single-node setups to those able to support up to 24 terabytes of memory.
If SAP BW migration to AWS is on your list, think about these points:
Choosing the right tool for cloud data migration is important as there is a number of them and the most appropriate option has to be chosen according to expectations from the migration process and requirements to data volume.
A good SAP cloud migration strategy starts with one question: how much of your current BW do you want to keep?
SAP's suggested path has three steps, called Lift, Shift and Innovate. First you lift your existing BW into a private cloud edition. Then you gradually convert objects into data products. Finally you rebuild key data flows on newer foundations.
McCoy Partners lists four overall options:
The usual on-premise to cloud migration approaches, like rehosting, replatforming and rebuilding, all apply here. Pick the one that matches your timeline and budget. A hybrid setup is possible too, though BARC calls it new and still maturing.
Here's a plan that holds up in most cases:
Be realistic about time too. One Data says small, focused migrations take a few months, while large, complex systems can take two to four years.
Nobody can give you a fair number without looking at your system, and anyone who does is guessing. But the cost drivers are clear:
The cheapest thing you can do is cut scope before you start.
Think about outside help if you don't have people who know both BW and cloud, if the 2027 deadline is close, or if you've got a lot of custom code and unclear business rules.
A good partner should help with assessment, a phased roadmap, migration with rollback plans and cost control after go-live. That's what Dotsquares' cloud computing consulting services cover across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, from strategy and migration to cost optimisation. Whoever you pick, ask for examples of SAP BW work specifically.
It's moving your SAP BW data warehouse from your own servers to a cloud setup, such as a private cloud edition on a hyperscaler or SAP Business Data Cloud.
It depends on size. Small, focused moves can take a few months, while large systems can take two to four years, according to One Data.
Yes. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP supports installing BW/4HANA on AWS, running on SAP HANA.
Carrying over unused objects, untranslated custom code, lost business rules and cost overruns after go-live.
Assess what's used, clean up, pick your target platform, and plan to move in waves with a rollback plan.
For many companies, yes, especially with BW 7.5 maintenance ending in 2027, but only if you cut scope first and watch cloud costs.
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